“The increase in earnings was driven by broad-based improvement in almost all areas of the company. We are very happy with the progress we made in growing the loan portfolio,” said PBB president Roland Avante.

The bank expanded its lending business by 24 percent to P25.89 billion at end of June from a year ago, noting that the country’s strong economic performance spurred loan demand from small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

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Avante said PBB’s recent strategy of entering nearby, higher-growth markets like the SMEs and building quality local teams in its branch network allowed the bank to “grow loans on a more sustainable basis.”

PBB’s net interest margin improved to 4.5 percent from 3.75 percent in the same period in 2012, as cost of funds eased alongside the reduction in the central bank’s special deposit account (SDA) rates.

Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) to risk assets remained well above the regulatory limit at 25.43 percent while core or tier1 CAR stood at 24.88 percent.